Mobile app framework Famo.us is now free for all to use and integrates with AngularJS; later it will integrate with other third-party JavaScript frameworks

InfoWorld|May 20, 2014

Famo.us, the mobile app framework notable for its HTML5-powered performance and PhoneGap-like application-packaging system, has released its framework to the general public and has announced integration with Google's AngularJS framework.

AngularJS (also due for its own major revision soon) allows entire applications to be written as a single Web page, with dynamic insertion of content and code. Famo.us' support for Angular consists of a canonical method for replacing Angular's view component with Famo.us itself so Angular can generate Famo.us-powered content as its output.

Most of the other big changes announced with Famo.us' 0.2.0 release involve how it's packaged, deployed, and delivered. The idea is to make it easier for programmers to get their hands on it and begin working as quickly as possible. (Famo.us also has removed login requirements for its "Famo.us University" collection of tutorials and hands-on projects.)

One such packaging convenience is what Famo.us calls the ".ZIP starter kit," a zip file that contains the core Famo.us code along with a slew of demonstrations, tutorials, and documentation. After unpacking the kit into a folder, a Famo.us user can launch index.html files to explore the contents.

The framework also no longer depends on external development tools like NPM or Grunt. The whole of Famo.us can be delivered as a single JavaScript file, which can either be stored locally or retrieved from a CDN à la jQuery.

Famo.us founder and CEO Steve Newcomb hinted at several other things in the works, including support for a whole slew of other third-party frameworks, such as Backbone, Ember, Facebook React, and Meteor. The exact details of the integration with these wasn't immediately available, though.

Newcomb also described a forthcoming "minification-as-a-service" feature. JavaScript code can be condensed, or "minified," resulting in both space savings and a performance boost. What Newcomb discussed, though, is a service that intelligently minifies Famo.us applications: Apps that use Famo.us can be scanned, and the parts of Famo.us that aren't actually used can be stripped out.

InfoWorld's Martin Heller gave Famo.us a close look earlier this month, awarding it strong marks for its relative ease of use and strong performance. He did note, however, that it requires strong JavaScript chops to master and didn't have an easy way to create a single app that comfortably spanned multiple device form factors. (The 0.2.0 revision has the FlexibleLayout view function, which may help ease things.)